Meta to Lay Off 10% of Its Workforce Starting May 20

 Meta to Lay Off 10% of Its Workforce Starting May 20

Meta is preparing to cut approximately 8,000 jobs starting May 20 and that is only the first wave.

The Facebook and Instagram owner will lay off about 10 percent of its global workforce, or close to 8,000 employees, in that initial round. The company is also planning further layoffs in the second half of the year, although details of those cuts including date and size are not yet settled.

What makes the Meta layoffs May 2026 story particularly striking is the context. This is not a company in distress. Last year, Meta generated more than $200 billion in revenue and achieved a $60 billion profit despite outsized spending on artificial intelligence. The cuts are a choice, not a necessity.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into AI as he seeks to dramatically reshape the company’s inner workings around the technology. Executives envision a future of fewer management layers and greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.In short, Meta is not cutting to survive it is cutting to transform.

Engineering resources are being consolidated into more centralised AI-focused teams, including a growing Applied AI division, while other parts of the business such as Reality Labs and product-focused units are also being realigned. Meta has also indicated it could spend up to $135 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone. 

Meta layoffs may 2026 workforce reduction

The scale of the Meta layoffs May 2026 puts this among the company’s most consequential workforce actions in years. The last comparable restructuring came in late 2022 and early 2023 Zuckerberg’s self-declared “year of efficiency” when Meta eliminated about 21,000 jobs. At that time, Meta’s stock was in freefall and the company was correcting for Covid-era growth assumptions that proved unsustainable.  The situation today is fundamentally different, but the headcount math is just as serious.

Meta is not alone. Global tech layoffs are accelerating in 2026, with more than 80,000 jobs already cut in the first quarter, led by companies including Oracle, Amazon, and Meta. Nearly half of all layoffs in 2026 have been linked to AI-related restructuring.